Track appliance for automatic stops.



M. B. BULLA.

TRACK APPLIANCE FOR AUTOMATIC STOPS.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT]. 1916.

1 45,672. @atente Nov. 6, 1917.

WITNE888 rum/Tor:

I By v UNITED STATES PATENT, orr on MELBERN BERNIE BULLA, OF EL PASO, TEXAS, ASSIGNOR' TO TRAIN CONTROL APPLIANCE COMPANY, OF DOVER, DELAWARE, A CORPORATION OF DELAWARE;

TRACK APPLIANCE FOR AUTOMATIC STOPS;

' Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filedSepteinber 2, 1916. Serial No. ll-8,180. I

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, MELBERN B. BULLA, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of El Paso, in the county of El Paso and State of Texas, have invented a new and Improved Track Appliance for Automatic Stops, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

This invention relates to automatic stops for railway trains of the type covered generally by my previous Patent No. 1,165,152, of December 23, 1915, and others, in which some suitable movable or breakable means is employed by the locomotive or other part of the train for contact with a relatively stationary device located along the railway track and made functional when the train is about to pass a danger signal or the like to cause the automatic setting of the brakes and thereby the stopping of the train.

Among the objects of this present improvement, therefore, is to provide an appliance of a simple and portable nature adapted to be carried along with the flagmans equipment either on a train or elsewhere, whereby the flagman may be sure that an on-coming train will be positively stopped whether the danger signal be observed or not by the engine driver of the o-n-coming train.

lVith the foregoing and other objects in view the invention consists in the arrangement and combination of parts hereinafter described and claimed, and while the invention is not restricted to the exact details of construction disclosed or suggested here in, still for the purpose of illustrating a practical embodiment thereof reference is had to the accompanying drawings, in which like reference characters designate the same parts in the several views, and in which Figure 1 is a front elevation of my improvement applied to a railway rail; and

Fig. 2 is a side elevation thereof looking toward the side of the rail.

Referring now more particularly to the drawings, my invention will be understood as comprising essentially an L-shaped bracket made of rigid metal or its equivalent and having facilities for readily clamping the same to the base flange of a rail. It not infrequently occurs that the efforts of a flagman to signal and stop an on-coming train are futile because of storm conditions or the like which make it impossible for the engineer of the on-coming train to observe the efforts of the flagman, or because of the death or incapacity of said engineer.

This improvement, therefore, comprises a bracket 10 having an upwardly projecting leg 11 and a horizontal base or foot portion 12. The foot 12 is provided with a sharp end 12, whereby the flagman may readily chop away any accumulation of hard snow or ice or other material which might interfere with his ready access to the base flange 15 of a rail R. The end of the foot, there fore, is designed to be slipped beneath said base flange so as to bring the rigid jaw 1% into contact withthe upper surface of the base flange. Said jaw carries a set screw 15 representing any suitable means for effecting the clamping of the appliance to the rail temporarily but rigidly.

If the bracket is designed for use in connection with electrified railways, to insure that a satisfactory contact will be made between the train device (not shown) and the track appliance, I prefer to connect to the upper end of the bracket leg 11, a plate 16 of copper or the like. The connection may be made by rivets 17 or other rigid permanent means. I also preferably curve the upper end of the leg plate slightly in a direction parallel to the rail and away from the direction of movement of the approaching train, so as to reduce the liability of breakage of the device which obviously is intended to be used repeatedly.

The copper plate 16 is employed as herein set forth so that there will never be any rust or corrosion such as would interfere with making a good electrical contact with the shoe or other device carried by the locomotive, and it is slanted in the direction of traffic so that it will make a better contact and will not be liable to catch such shoe. It will thus be understood that the present improvement is intended as an electric contact device for electrical means carried by the locomotive and is in no sense a trip device or one that is intended to serve as an obstacle for the purpose of breaking or turning some brake attachment on the train.

I am aware that it is not broadly new to employ portable track appliances for the same general purpose as in this improvement, but having thus set forth the object and nature of the invention, what I claim is:

The herein described track appliance for Patented Nov. 6, 191 '7;

automatic stops comprising a substantially lower surface thereof and means carried by L-shapecl bracket incluchng a vertleal leg a the Jaw to look the bracket to the rail.

horizontal foot said foot havin a sharp 4 T end for chopping beneath the ra il, a rigid MELBERN BERNIE BULLA' jaw secured to the bracket and adapted to lVitnesses: fit snugly upon the upper surface of the rail C. H. LEAGUE, flange While the foot lies snugly against the GEORGE E. MEAD.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington D. G. 

